Sunday, 25 November 2012

What's being downplayed in the media - actually not being mentioned at all - is the significant detail that the woman filing the complaint is a lesbian. You can imagine why.

Muslims and the LGTB community are minority groups that enjoy privileged status in the eyes of the nation's progressives - who are highly concentrated in the media - who routinely side with either group in a human rights complaint so long as the complaint is against what one can consider "traditional Canada", i.e. white, working class, male, and Christian.

This time, however, what is being offered is a common sense approach to the situation so as not to favour one side over the other in the hopes that a hearing at a human rights tribunal can be avoided altogether. This is never offered when the targets of a complaint are members of "traditional Canada." When that is the case "traditional Canada" must capitulate or face a tongue lashing from our moral and intellectual superiors in the media and the chattering classes. Hypocrites, the lot of 'em!

So you can imagine the head-spinning they must be suffering right now as they try to figure this one out but they only have themselves to blame for it. They have so enabled both Muslims and Lesbians, among other minority status groups, in their victim complex that the sense of entitlement and right to be accommodated of either group has become so inflated it's conceivable the periphery of it has expanded to somewhere beyond the Oort cloud. So don't expect any willful surrender of territory for the sake of peace in this battle of "new Canada's" spoiled brats.

But this conflict was inevitable in the "new Canada" sooner or later so we might as well deal with it now and get it out of the way so we have something to work with when it happens again.

And it will happen again.

I write about this because I think it is a symptom of a society that is becoming increasingly ungovernable and mass immigration largely from non-traditional sources married to multiculturalism are to blame.

Take the latest flap over the lack of diversity among the watermark images of the new Canadian passport as another example. It speaks volumes about where Canadian society is headed. If a consensus cannot be had over the choice of iconic Canadian images to grace the pages of the new passport - because members of the "new Canada" feel unrepresented even though their place in Canadian history and contribution to anything uniquely Canadian is near non-existent - how will we be able to function as a cohesive society and how will Ottawa be able to govern the nation when it is divided by "communities" acting out of self-interest for the benefit and advantage of its members?

I may be extrapolating too much here but I don't think so. A disease characteristically doesn't make itself known without the display of symptoms. Ignoring them and letting it fester will lead to long-term problems and chronic pain with the possibility of ultimate terminal effect where it's now too late to do anything of benefit. Spotted early and dealt with quickly the disease can be halted and the body saved.

Sunday, 11 November 2012

Overworked, understaffed, asleep at the switch, or just plain lazy I'd still like to know how this guy got in.

Kai-Guo Huang came to Canada from China as refugee claimant Yu Chen in 2006.

He started a business and became a member of a local church. He paid his taxes on time.

He was granted permanent residency status in 2010 and purchased an upscale condo in north Scarborough.

To get into the country as a refugee claimant he was fingerprinted, interviewed and a criminal record check was completed. A second set of fingerprints were given and another criminal check done when he applied for permanent residency.

If Toronto police hadn’t arrested him for drunk driving in early August and run his prints against the FBI database in the U.S., chances are no one would have discovered two important things about Huang:

He entered Canada from China using fake travel documents.

He is wanted in the U.S. in connection with a grisly murder and decapitation 14 years ago.

The breakdown in border security has immigration experts and a Liberal MP baffled at how an alleged murderer got into the country undetected.

And we gave him permanent residency. Might as well give him the order of Canada while we're at it.

He most likely left the U.S. right after the murder by using his Chinese passport. China doesn't recognize dual citizenship so many overseas Chinese will hold onto their Chinese passports and use it to return to their home country.

China and it's overseas colonies including those here in Canada are hotbeds for documentation fraud so it's easy to figure out how he got into Canada.

What's worrisome is how he got passed all the security checks making you wonder who the hell is guarding our borders and whether they take their jobs seriously. And if you find one Kai-Guo Huang there's likely a whole lot more you're not finding making you wonder as well to the numbers of the world's crooks, cons, thieves;and murderers who are walking the streets of Canada's cities and towns and calling themselves Canadians.

Since we're on the topic of Asian criminals there's this Toronto Sun report on the disruption of a transnational drug trafficking ring.

Police have arrested 10 people after breaking up an alleged
organized crime ring that was apparently making a decent commission trafficking
drugs between B.C. and Ontario.

Investigators in both provinces swooped in this week and
dismantled the group, seizing more than $2 million worth of marijuana, property
and cash as they wrapped up a seven-month, joint-forces investigation dubbed
Project Lie-See.

Toronto residents Joe Viet Troung, 27, and Michael Tuan Van
Nguyen, 23, were also arrested on possession for the purpose of trafficking
charges.

Look at the names of those charged. It's like reading from the pages of the Old Canada phone book ins't it?

Almost all of those names are Vietnamese and this shouldn't come as a surprise since it's well established that the Vietnamese are dominate players in the Canadian pot trade in.

Speaking of Asians and drug trafficking we have this Toronto Star report on the involvement of Canada's Sikh population in the drug trade.

For years, Indo-Canadian gangs in B.C. have been involved in cross-border drug smuggling, infiltrating the trucking industry and fighting turf wars that have often been bloody and vicious.

But now, members of southern Ontario’s Indo-Canadian community, in particular from Brampton and Mississauga, are increasingly being lured into the North American drug trade, according to Crown attorneys, lawyers, police and community leaders on this side of the border.

It is not difficult to understand why. An estimated 60 per cent of Ontario’s long-haul truck drivers are Indo-Canadian, making them logical targets for drug traffickers. They will gladly do long-haul jobs shunned by others that can mean being on the road for weeks. They don’t mind sharing the close quarters of a cab with a co-driver, and the job requires little more than a commercial driver’s licence.

“There are many (Indo-Canadian drivers) who just want to make a decent living,” said Manan Gupta, editor-publisher of Road Today, a monthly trucking magazine in the GTA. “But there are a few bad ones and their numbers are rising.”

“This is ruining our community’s name . . . drivers from Peel are looked upon suspiciously at the border,” he said.

You mean make a descent living by ruining the descent living truckers made before Sikhs flooded the commercial trucking trade and subsequently drove down incomes.

Perhaps that's the reason why they'd be tempted into trafficking drugs in the first place. Since they drove down the livelihoods for all of those in the industry drug trafficking helps supplement an income that's become a little more lucrative than driving a cab. It's the only way they can now afford the over-priced houses in the gaudy urban sprawl neighbourhoods of Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, B.C.

What's to be taken away from this is 1) abandon any confidence in Canada being able to police it's borders and weed out criminals and fraudsters and 2) shelve any notion that immigrants are less prone to criminal activity than Canadian born.

Regrading the second point I recall a time when it was argued that immigrants were more law abiding than Canadians themselves. And at that time it was true but no longer thanks to the disintegration of the immigration system along with the debasement of criteria and expectations we placed on earlier waves of immigrants. Since all that matters now is numbers we've abandoned quality to satisfy quantity.

What's most disconcerting is how casual attitudes have become within the immigrant populations in the "new Canada" towards engaging in criminal acts whether it be drugs, fraud, murder, or theft and how these attitudes are too often passed onto their Canadian born children.

Why this is I can only guess at. The answer is most likely to be found in the fact that we are importing far too many people from crime prone regions of the world were attitudes towards criminal behaviour are casual to being with. These overwhelming numbers of people we import are too many for us to adequately police. But perhaps the sense of gratitude earlier waves of immigrants held for Canada kept them from doing anything criminal out of respect for the nation and the people who brought them in. Now that sense of gratitude has been replaced by a sense of entitlement where Canada owes them a living and a lifestyle. They have come to feel they deserve it even if it means acting in an illegal manner where it's not a crime if you don't get caught.

The federal government has spent more than $1.5 million in legal costs defending itself against a lawsuit filed in 2009 by a Toronto mother who was stranded in Kenya for nearly three months because immigration officials thought she was an impostor.{...}

Postmedia News has learned the case was finally settled out of court within the last six months. While the terms of the settlement are confidential, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson did reveal this week the total cost of the case.

If you've forgotten who Suaad Hagi Mohamud is you can read about her here.

I still hold she was trying to defraud Canada's immigration system and sneak her sister into the country.

Defrauding the immigration system of western countries is a penchant of Somalis and east Africans in general. For example the U.S. discovered in 2008 that it was the target of wide spread immigration fraud by east Africans, chief among them Somalis.

The State Department has suspended a humanitarian program to reunite thousands of African refugees with relatives in the U.S. after unprecedented DNA testing by the government revealed widespread fraud.

The freeze affects refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guinea and Ghana, many of whom have been waiting years to emigrate. The State Department says it began DNA testing with a pilot program launched in February to verify blood ties among African refugees. Tests found some applicants lied about belonging to the same family to gain a better chance at legal entry.{...}

In February, the State Department launched pilot testing in Kenya to verify family relationships, mainly among Somalis. When applicants arrived for a previously scheduled appointment, a U.S. official asked them to volunteer for a DNA test.

An expert then swabbed the cheek of those who claimed biological relationships, such as a mother and her purported children.

The cell samples were sent to labs in the U.S. for analysis.

As word spread, some applicants began missing appointments, and others refused to cooperate.

Laboratory analysis of the samples indicated a large portion of applicants weren't blood relations, as they claimed. "The results were dismaying," says Ms. Strack. "This told us we had a problem with the program."

The results prompted expansion of the testing to other countries. "We had high rates of fraud everywhere, except the Ivory Coast," says a State Department official.

If the U.S. immigration system was being subjected to this deceitful behaviour it stands to reason Canada's immigration system was being subjected to it as well.

It's conceivable Suaad Hagi Mohamud was doing what her fellow Somalis were doing. It may very well be that the woman she was trying to sneak into Canada wasn't even her sister at all but someone who looked like her and offered her a cash reward to get her into the country.

What's irksome is how the media cast her as the victim while the government was cast as the villain even though it was only safeguarding the integrity of Canadian citizenship with good reason; and even though it's possible the woman was very well trying to scam us. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he woman jailed by the Kenyans may not have been the same woman who showed up for DNA testing since the testing wasn't conducted until after she was released on bail.

The details of the settlement will remain confidential though we as taxpayers deserve to know. We do know she didn't get the $2.6 million she was after. Indeed, she may have only received a pittance since it's likely most of the $1.5 million cost went to legal fees. In my view she doesn't deserve a scent and frankly if evidence does exist she was engaging in an act of immigration fraud she should be stripped of her citizenship and deported.

Likely encouraged by the Maher Arar affair - itself an event that generates questions that if answered could reveal the man to be a liar and undeserving of his handsome taxpayer funded cash payout - she swung for the fences and sought to take Canadians to the bank. Were she a smarter woman she should have made up a torture story to go along with it. Why not? Who's going to question her about it? The media?

Ultimately Canadians are out $1.5 million due to the shenanigans of a Somali woman who thought to make Canada her personal ATM. That's $1.5 million that could have gone to more productive means and fund services that benefited a wider scope of Canadians instead of entertain the selfish pursuits of an immigrant woman.

Sunday, 4 November 2012

As was expected the government announced that it intends to hold immigration levels steady through to 2013. This means the deluge of some 240,000 to 265,000 immigrants will continue to rain down and flood an increasingly weary Canadian populace already drowning in "new Canadians", not unlike the residents of Hoboken, New Jersey who found themselves trying to keep their heads afloat in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. But unlike them there appears to be no end in sight nor temporary relief to the immigrant downpour that has been a fact of life for Canadians for the past quarter century.

Canada will hold immigration levels steady for the seventh year in a row in 2013, but will make more room within its quota for what’s quickly become its fastest-growing category of newcomers.

I caught the announcement on CBC as Jason Kenney; the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multiculturalism; was answering questions in a media scrum.

The impression I got from him was that he wanted to increase immigration levels but felt it was "irresponsible" to do so as if to imply that holding immigration levels at around a quarter of a million people for the next year wasn't irresponsible itself given the current economic climate. Why he felt it was "irresponsible" to increase numbers I cannot say exactly since I was busy at the moment and caught just a bit of the interview but I can only assume that it had to do with the state of the economy and the fact that Canadians are displaying increasing displeasure with the immigration system.

The federal government is under more pressure to demonstrate the economic benefits of immigration, as 2012 polling suggests attitudes towards immigration are cooling slightly. Internal briefing notes for Citizenship and Immigration Canada released under access to information law say there’s been a 10-percentage-point drop since 2010 – to 56 per cent – in the number of Canadians who feel that immigration has a positive impact on the economy.

Canadians are right to doubt the economic benefits of mass immigration of over the past thirty years and Jason Kenney is well aware that Canadians cannot stomach more immigration.

Internally, the federal government is closely monitoring what officials consider a slightly diminished enthusiasm for immigration. “Findings from the 2012 tracking study suggest that attitudes towards immigration levels and the impact of immigration are somewhat tightening up,” a recent Citizenship and Immigration presentation said.

“Residents of Ontario are among those who seem less convinced as to the positive economic impact of immigration.”

The polling figures show very few Canadians realize that Canada accepts more than 250,000 newcomers as permanent residents each year.

The 2012 tracking poll, conducted in two waves, found that when respondents were informed about the actual number of immigrants, there was a shift of between nine and 14 percentage points to the view that Canada was accepting “too many” newcomers – away from “the right amount.”

Since 2010, the Immigration report found, there’s been a drop of between 16 to 18 percentage points in the number of Canadians who feel that “immigration has a positive impact on Canadian culture.”

Saying "a slightly diminished enthusiasm for immigration" and that attitudes are "somewhat tightening up" are understatements employed, I think, to downplay the broadening negative views Canadians are developing towards the immigration system. But this is probably my biases thinking for me here.

Nevertheless what's important to note here is that Canadians' alleged popular support for the mass immigration system is based on ignorance of the system itself. To repeat, according the polling information "very few Canadians realize that Canada accepts more than 250,000 newcomers as permanent residents each year." When informed of the actual numbers support dropped to between nine and fourteen percentage points on the opinion that Canada was accepting too many. One has to wonder what would be considered "the right amount" of immigrants to those who were polled? Would they still consider 150,000 an amount as "too many?" One also has to wonder how much more support for the immigration system would drop further were Canadians informed of the details of the policy, it's outcomes over the past three decades, and it's lasting effects.

Canadians do not fully appreciate the long-term impact the immigration system is imposing on Canadian society, on their daily lives, and the future of the nation which I feel if not confronted can prove detrimental. It comes as no shock to read that Ontario residents were among the most skeptical of the positive economic impacts of immigration simply because any positive economic impact immigration brought to the province is negligible at best and not worth writing home about. This is significant because Ontario has been receiving the bulk of immigrants yet has little to boast about aside from a larger population. In a way, Ontario is the canary in the mine.

However, with that said Jason Kenney seems to be pushing for more of it. The impression given is that there are only two options to choose from: maintain current numbers or increase them. Indeed, this has been the mindset of the Minister of Immigration since the terrible days of the Mulroney government, be he or she Liberal or Conservative. This is bothersome since cutting immigration numbers is also a viable option that's rarely explored even though there are sound arguments for doing so.

The excuses for holding immigration levels are familiar, tiresome, and easily refutable but it's all he's got and the media is too self-interested in challenging him on them so why not use them? This time around it's to "help grow and keep the Canadian economy going" if I remember his exact words. When the Canadian economy was robust it was to "help fuel the boom." When the economy tanked in 2008 it was to "help prepare for the recovery." Logic would dictate that if we need high levels of immigration during booming economic periods then a contraction would necessitate the reduction of immigration levels but that's not what we got. So, no matter what happens, be it good times or bad, we always need a high and ever increasing number of immigrants. So when do we not need high and ever increasing numbers of immigrants?

Speaking of which, on the same day Jason Kenney made the announcement to hold immigration levels steady StatsCan reported Canada's real GDP had contracted by 0.1 per cent in August.

The economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in August, the first decline in real gross domestic product since February, Statistics Canada reported today.

Analysts had expected growth of about 0.2 per cent on a month-over-month basis.The statistics agency said the August contraction was driven by a 0.5 per cent dip in goods production, mainly due to decreases in mining, oil and gas extraction and manufacturing.

First is that these so-called "analysts" are just glorified crystal ball gazers. They expected growth at 0.2 per cent but instead we got a contraction of 0.1 per cent. Armed with their extensive educations and years of experience how did they not see that? These are men and women fed data on daily basis only to do nothing more than make an educated guess which more often than not proves to be wrong. Why we take these people seriously is beyond me but it's to them that government's too often turn to form policy which produces mixed results at best but often fail based on the simple fact that man cannot predict the future. This also extends to the immigration system where forecasts and studies and demographic trends work in concert to create a vision of a future not yet realized but when it does come those forecasts and studies and demographic trends, though sometimes accurate, oftentimes turn out to be off the mark, or exaggerated, or flat out wrong. Setting immigration levels based on dubious information can be disastrous.

The second thing to note is that mass immigration has not produced the roaring economy that was promised. It has not sheltered the country from a global economic downturn; in a globalized world it cannot do that. Though assumed, it has not made Canada more productive compared to other countries nor has it leapfrogged the nation to the front of the heap when it comes to innovation. Canadians are no better off now than when the mass immigration madness set in. Indeed, one can successfully argue that it has made Canadians worse off than they otherwise are.

Let's abandon playing seer and look at what we do know. We know that Canada has the best educated adults in the world according to a recent OECD study. We also know that Canada is in the top three when it comes to spending on education, just behind the United States and Switzerland. We also have the highest immigrant intake numbers per-capita in the world allegedly attracting the world's best and brightest.

Things should be looking pretty for Canadians but not so. According to the same OECD study Canada displays a paradox. Despite having a well educated workforce "a baffling chunk of them" earn well below the median wage. A disconcerting number of Canada's well educated youth face a life of perpetual underemployment. More significantly, this "paradox" also affected immigrants and not just recent ones. Immigrants who have been in the country for more than 10 to 29 years were "more likely to be earning well below their education levels."

And still the government intends to maintain Canada's already too high immigration numbers. It may very well be that mass immigration of the scale Canada has been entertaining for the past three decades is a culprit to the existence of this "paradox."

Canada's economy doesn't lend itself to such high numbers in the first place. The Canadian economy is mostly characterized by three economic sectors: resource extraction, financial services, and the public sector. Of the three, two provide nothing or real worth: the financial sector and the public sector. Though one can find employment in these sectors they don't generate anything of real, material value. Indeed, one can guess as to whether the financial sector provides anything of real social value to begin with. The only sector that produces anything or real value is the resource sector in which we remove raw materials from the ground just to export them overseas and then import them again to buy back as a finished good. This isn't the kind of economy that would necessitate the importation of a quarter of a million people a year for the past thirty years with an additional 300,000 temporary foreign workers who are only temporary in name.

I can only speculate to the real reasons why immigration levels are to remain steady but it's probably the usual suspects. Such as we need to import the people to keep to real estate bubble from exploding spectacularly; the "big six" banks need more bank accounts to siphon money from; the private sector needs immigrants as a form of salary and wage control; the political parties need the continued importation of votes while enduring themselves to ethnic bloc votes in voter rich urban centers; and so forth.

But there may be another reason for it. It may be because Jason Kenney is trying to clear the skilled immigrant backlog as quickly as possible. This is a backlog he inherited from the reckless mismanagement of previous governments, both Liberal and Conservative, and he says he's on track to clear it by the end of 2013. This is something I'll believe when I see it but to his credit he has manged to cull some 280,000 applications from the system; more than a single cohort of immigrants in a year. If this is his intent and he achieves it then hopefully he'll move to reduce Canada's annual immigrant intake, fingers crossed.